Google agrees to settle YouTube children's privacy lawsuit
The lawsuit accused YouTube of illegally collecting children’s data without parental consent and then targeting them with ads.
The battle over children’s privacy on YouTube has been on for years, and this week it reached another turning point.
Google, YouTube’s parent company, agreed to pay $30 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of illegally collecting children’s data without parental consent and then targeting them with ads.
The settlement, which still requires court approval, would cover children under 13 who watched YouTube between July 2013 and April 2020, estimated to be about 35 million to 45 million children in this class action suit, though only a small percentage are expected to file claims. If they do, payouts could be between $30 and $60 each after fees.
If you've been keeping up with Google's suit, you'd notice the similarity between this and the 2019 suit which Google paid $170 million in fines over similar charges. And of course, critics were upset that the regulators were too lenient for a company of Google’s size. As part of that agreement, YouTube agreed to stop collecting data on videos directed at children. But according to parents who brought this latest suit, the practices never really stopped (talk about old habits dying hard).
Louis Eriakha
For Google, $30 million barely makes a dent in its financials. In the first quarter of 2025 alone, parent company Alphabet posted revenue of $90.2 billion. And YouTube, the platform at the center of the storm, has never been stronger. In Q2 2025, YouTube reported a record $9.8 billion in ad revenue, up 13% year-over-year, beating analyst expectations and widening the gap with rivals.
The platform now commands nearly 13% of U.S. TV viewership, outpacing Netflix and leaving traditional broadcasters scrambling to adapt. That dominance is part of why these lawsuits matter so much. The more powerful YouTube becomes, the louder the calls to scrutinize how it monetizes its audience, especially its youngest viewers.
The settlement doesn’t come with an admission of wrongdoing, and Google continues to insist that it has improved protections for children since the 2019 case. Still, the recurring nature of these lawsuits raises questions about whether the financial penalties are actually changing behavior, or if they’re simply becoming the cost of doing business.
